We had thirteen days in Seoul in July 2023, which is long enough to learn something most three-day itineraries miss: half of the best things to do in Seoul are free, and the other half are cheaper than you think. One of the biggest indoor amusement parks anywhere runs about $23. A river cruise is $13. The trick is knowing which half is which before you land. This is our full list, the free stuff we did on repeat and the bookable stuff worth actual money, with Klook links and current prices for the bookings.
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Browse Seoul on KlookThe free half of Seoul
Start with the street food, because Seoul's evenings are an attraction that costs whatever you eat. The Myeongdong night market runs blocks of stalls: 5,000 won fruit cups, croffles, dumplings off a griddle, and Korean corn dogs that our girls rated above every themed restaurant on the trip. Every stall takes card and nothing needs booking.
Beyond the food, Seoul is quietly one of the best free-playground cities we have visited. There is equipment in every neighborhood, cartoon-themed outdoor gyms in the parks, and the Cheonggyecheon stream cuts a sunken walking path through the middle of downtown where kids can hop stepping stones while you drink an iced coffee. Namdaemun Gate and its market are a short walk from Myeongdong and cost nothing to gawk at. Our surprise hit was DDLAB, a children's museum we stumbled into that ate an entire afternoon with climbing structures, a foam bubble-tea maze, and air conditioning, which in a Seoul July is its own attraction.
N Seoul Tower and the Namsan cable car
If you do one paid-ish thing on foot, make it this. N Seoul Tower sits on the mountain directly behind Myeongdong, the cable car up is a ride the kids count as an attraction in itself, and the plaza at the top is full of mascot statues, love locks, and a cotton candy vending machine that stopped our crew cold. The observation deck views stretch to the Han River even through summer haze. We covered the whole climb in a video if you want to preview it.
The palaces, with or without a hanbok
Full honesty: with three kids under eight, we walked past more palaces than we entered, and the Admiral Yi statue on Sejong-daero got more of our attention than the throne halls behind it. If your kids are older or your patience is deeper, the Gyeongbokgung and Changdeokgung full-day cultural tour runs $78.29 as of July 2026 and covers both major palaces plus temples and markets with a guide who can explain what you are looking at. The more photogenic option is the Gyeongbokgung hanbok photoshoot and history tour at $60.49, where you rent traditional dress and come home with the photos that fill every Seoul Instagram feed. Wearing a hanbok also gets you free palace entry, which softens the price.
Big tickets that are weirdly cheap
Lotte World is the one that breaks people's price expectations: $23.39 on Klook for one of the world's largest indoor theme parks, plus the outdoor Magic Island section on a lake. The indoor half makes it a legitimate rainy-day and heat-wave play, and weekday waits on the kids' rides are reportedly minimal. For scale, that ticket costs less than parking at most American parks.
The other cheap flex is the Han River cruise from Yeouido at $13.29. It departs from the Yeouinaru dock, runs about an hour, and the evening sailings catch the city lit up along the bridges. It is the rare boat tour priced like a bus ticket.
The shows: Nanta and The Painters
We did not make either of these, because our children's bedtimes defeated us, so this is research rather than review. Nanta ($20.69) is Korea's longest-running show, a kitchen percussion comedy at the Myeongdong theatre that needs zero Korean to follow and holds a 4.5 rating across more than 5,600 reviews, with families consistently reporting it works for kids. The Painters ($18.69) is a live-art and dance performance near Gwanghwamun rated 4.9, where the cast produces actual paintings on stage during the show. Both run matinee slots, which is how we would beat the bedtime problem next time.
Getting around, and getting out
Inside the city, the subway wins: it is faster than Tokyo's, cheap, and air conditioned. If you want your sightseeing and transport in one ticket, the hop-on hop-off city tour bus ($18.05) loops the downtown palaces and Namsan, which solves the stroller problem the subway stairs occasionally create. For a day trip beyond Seoul, the KORAIL Pass ($87.45) covers KTX bullet trains nationwide, and Busan is under three hours each way.
What to do in Seoul, mapped
Every activity in this guide. Markers with a button link to Klook tickets; the rest are free.
Booking three or more of these? Run the math on the bundle first in our Seoul Klook Pass guide, and use code ADAMANDLINDSKLOOK at checkout either way.
One logistics note that applies to everything above: Seoul runs on data. Google Maps cannot route you here, so Naver Map and Papago run all day, and every Klook voucher lives on your phone. We used a Holafly Korea eSIM with unlimited data for all thirteen days; the details are in our Holafly South Korea guide and everything else lives on our Holafly page.
If you want to see the city before you commit to any of it, our first impressions of Seoul and the rest of the Korea videos on the channel cover the whole trip at street level.
FAQ
What to do in Seoul questions
Four to five days covers the core list above at a family pace: one palace day, one Lotte World day, N Seoul Tower, and evenings in Myeongdong. We stayed thirteen and filled them, but a lot of that was playgrounds and repeat corn dogs.
At $23.39 the bar is low and it clears it. The indoor section has a full kids' zone with short weekday waits, and the park works in rain or heat, which matters in a Seoul summer. Skip weekends if you can.
Yes, that is the point of both. Nanta is percussion and physical comedy with almost no dialogue, and The Painters is built on visual art and dance. Both are staples for international visitors and both run afternoon shows for the bedtime-constrained.
The code applies to Klook activity bookings at checkout, which covers the tickets, tours, shows, and passes on this page. Enter it in the promo field before you pay, and check the discount shows before confirming.
Book the Seoul list before prices move
Code ADAMANDLINDSKLOOK works at Klook checkout on the activities above.
Start with Lotte World tickets Compare with the Seoul Klook PassThis post contains affiliate links to Klook and Holafly. If you book or purchase through our links we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We paid our own way in Seoul, and prices listed were checked in July 2026 and can change. All opinions are our own.
